Kompong Speu Official: 1,300 Families Out of Rice in Have Run

Despite reports from the Minis­try of Agriculture that this year’s rice harvest has increased 41 percent over 2005, a Kompong Speu of­ficial said Tuesday that more than 1,000 families in the province have run out of rice.

Kang Heang, deputy Kompong Speu governor, said 1,300 families throughout the province, the size of which he estimated averaged five members each, have no rice.

Although he said they are not immediately in danger of starvation, as they have fruit and vegetables to eat and are able to borrow money, he called on the World Food Pro­gram to distribute rice for work.

“We need about 1,000 tons of rice to be distributed to needy farmers in exchange for their labor digging irrigation canals and community ponds,” he said, adding that that the affected families lived in districts including Baset, Kong Pisei and Phnom Sruoch.

Despite positive results for the country as a whole, some Kom­pong Speu farmers reaped little rice in the last harvest due to poor rainfall, he said.

Agriculture Minister Chan Sa­run told his ministry’s annual conference in Chaktomuk Theater on Wednesday that the yield from the last rainy and dry season rice harvests amounted to 5.9 million tons.

The amount is a significant rise over last year’s figure, 4.17 million tons, and also over the 5-million-ton harvest the ministry projected for 2006 in November.

Nhim Vanda, first vice president at the National Committee for Di­sas­ter Management, said that de­tails of food shortages remain un­clear, but that some villagers in Kom­pong Speu, Prey Veng, Kan­dal, Svay Rieng and Pursat prov­inces could be wanting for food.

He added that the reported shortage in Kompong Speu was not a major concern for his committee.

Nhim Vanda met on Tuesday with WFP Country Director Thom­­­as ­Keusters to discuss meth­­ods of assessing Cambo­di­ans’ need for food in emergencies but they did not discuss the situation in Kom­pong Speu, Keusters said.

Keusters added that he was un­aware of any current food shortage and was surprised by the reports.

“Obviously this has to be investigated,” he said.

  (Additional reporting by Douglas Gillison)